View-Master’s 1957 New Jersey – 3 of 7

March 13, 2007July 31, 2013 by Chris Holmes

If this looks vaguely familiar, it should. It’s the George Washington Bridge (identified on the reel as the George Washington Memorial Bridge). What probably stands out is the fact that there is only a single deck here. The second deck wasn’t added until 1962. Since this is in the New Jersey set of reels I guess this shot was taken from the Fort Lee side.

The GWB opened on October 25, 1931, making it real old. It connects the aforementioned Fort Lee, NJ to the Washington Heights section of Manhattan – crossing the Hudson River. It held the distinction of being the world’s longest suspension bridge until 1937, when the Golden Gate Bridge was opened. According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong), it is now #14 on the list. The current top dog is the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, which is slightly more than 3,000 feet longer than the GWB. I don’t have any View-Masterslides of that though, so the GWB is cooler.